Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.

His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirsty.

What was the greatest thing you learned at school?

That one day it would end.

What was your favorite book as a child and why?An almost forgotten book now; After Bath by Vaughan Wilkins. A wonderful and very British magical fantasy, stuffed full of marvellous ideas and downright devious satire, much of which went right over my head as a child. I re-read it again many years later, and was surprised by how funny it was. Still magical, though.

What’s one thing that readers would be surprised to find out about you?Just the one; far too limiting. I ride motorbikes, appear in open air Shakespeare productions, and once wrestled a ghost. Yes; really.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?Writing is a vocation; it’s something you have to give your life to. If you can do anything else and be happy; do that. But if you want to be a writer, you have to write, and keep on writing. I started writing seriously when I was a student in London. I sold a handful of short stories in the years that followed, but it was fifteen years until I sold my first novel and got my career under way. If I’d known it was going to take that long, I’d have probably given it all up and been a plumber. Always good money in plumbing. But I kept thinking, if this book isn’t the one, the next one will be. And eventually it was.

In your newest book, NIGHT FALL (Secret Histories #12); can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about the novel?

Night Fall is what happens when my two best-known series hit each other head on. The Nightside books are about a private eye who operates in the Twilight Zone, solving cases of the weird and uncanny, in a part of London where the dawn never comes and it’s always three o’clock in the morning, the hour that tries men’s souls. The Secret Histories series features that very secret agent, Shaman Bond. The Nightside is all about freedom of choice and the never-ending search for trouble to get into. The Secret Histories is about making people place nicely together. So when forces from both books clash; you just know, this means war.

What was your inspiration for the series?

Night Fall is my sixtieth novel, and the culmination of a whole bunch of series. This is where I provide answers for all the mysteries, tie up all the loose ends, and shock the hell out of people who weren’t expecting this. You don’t need to have read all the previous books, though. It was written to be the best fun you could have with most of your clothes still on.

Which character have you enjoyed getting to know the most over the course of writing SECRET HISTORIES?

I think it’s got to be the hero’s girl-friend, the witch of the wild woods, Molly Metcalf. Described by one reader as; scariest girl-friend ever. Molly started out as something of a mystery, but as the series went on, both I and the readers learned a lot more about her, and the past events that made her what she is. I always enjoyed writing Molly.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?I’d like to introduce Ishmael Jones, hero of my murder mysteries series, and an alien passing for human, to Doctor Who. I think they’d have a lot to talk about.

What do you feel is the most significant change since book one?

Eddie Drood, also known as Shaman Bond when he’s operating in the field, has come a long way from the first book in the Secret Histories. But I think the thing that affected him most was the death of his Uncle Jack, the family Armourer. It took me a few books to realise that I’d based the Armourer on my father, who was an engineer. And I like to think that the Armourer raised Eddie, in the same way my father raised me. By good example.

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?I’m currently working on the seventh book in the Ishmael Jones mysteries; Agatha Christie style murders with SF & fantasy elements. They’re sneaky and devious and turning out to be a lot of fun, because you never know where they’re going next.

Choose a unique item from your wallet and explain why you carry it around.When I was a teenager, I had very long hair. It went all the way down to my waist. Yes; I was that hippie. I still have a photo from that time, that I carry around in my wallet. To show people what I think I still look like, in my head.

If you could be born into history as any famous person who would it be and why?

Robin Hood. Who robbed from the rich to give to the poor, kicked bad guy arse on a regular basis, and had a great time doing it. Yes he was real. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

Tell me about a favorite event of your childhood.

Back when I was but a small thing, the nearest cinema was some distance away in the next town, so I couldn’t go on my own. I had to have my parents take me. But they both worked all day, and come the evenings were mostly too tired to go out. So I went to the cinema as a special treat, on my birthday. But in those days of single screen cinemas, it meant I could only watch what was on. So when I was seven, I saw 55 Days In Peking. Went straight over my head. But when I was eight; I saw First Men In The Moon! And I loved it! That film changed my life, showing me exactly what it was that I wanted to give my life to.

Most horrifying dream you have ever had?I live in a small town in the middle of the countryside. When I was small, it was still fox-hunting country. My mother’s parents lived in a cottage that had a stuffed fox’s head mounted on the wall. The earliest nightmare I can remember featured that fox head. It was alive, and snarling at me, and saying terrible words that could only be understood in dreams. It still turns up in my nightmares, sometimes. Though these days I mostly punch it in the face.

If you wrote a journal entry today, what would it say?I wrote nine pages this afternoon, and I’ve still got four more hours work to go, till the working day is over. That’s the writer’s life. Of course, tomorrow is Saturday, and you would not believe what I’ve got planned...

What is your favorite restaurant in town and why?Pizza Hut. Stuffed crust. Life doesn’t get any better.

Where can readers find you?

In my books. Also, I have my own site on the Net. Twist your search engine’s arm, and it’ll take you straight to it.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Moonbreaker comes the epic final Secret Histories adventure, where the Droods will take on the most unexpected of enemies: the inhabitants of the Nightside.

The Droods are all about control, making people do what they’re told for the greater good. The Nightside is all about choice: good and bad and everything in between. The Droods want to make the world behave. The Nightside wants to party. They were never going to get along.

For centuries, ancient Pacts have kept the Droods out of the Nightside, but now the Droods see the Nightside as a threat to the whole world. They march into the long night, in their armour, to put it under their control. All too soon, the two sides are at war. It’s Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf against John Taylor and Shotgun Suzie. The Drood Sarjeant-at-Arms and their Armourer against Dead Boy and Razor Eddie. More groups join in: the London Knights, the Ghost Finders, the Spawn of Frankenstein, Shadows Fall, and the Soulhunters. Science and magic are running wild, there’s blood running in the gutters, and the bodies are piling up.

Is anyone going to get out of this alive?

Praise for NIGHT FALL

“A splendid riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, conveyed with trademark wisecracking humor, and carried out with maximum bloodshed and mayhem. In a word, irresistible.” ―Kirkus Review (Starred)